OCR Rendition - approximate

468 [Sept. MISCELLANEA. CONTENTS: PAGE I.-Economic Science and the British Association 468 II.-Russian Financial Statistics . 476 PAGE III.-English Railways in 1876.... 485 IV.-Notes on Recent Additions to the Library 497 I.-Economic Science and the British Association. OuR readers will remember that at the annual meeting of the Society in June, Dr. Farr referred to the subject of a suggestion which had been made to the Council of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to abolish Section F (Economic Science and Statistics). This strange suggestion very naturally raised a good deal of opposition, but has not yet been formally rejected. As the matter may be of some historical interest, we give below two papers which have been laid before the Council of the British Association, giving the reasons for the suggestion on the one side, and the grounds of the opposition on the other ; the first paper (a) being by Mr. Galton, and the second (b) by Dr. Farr. Mr. Galton has been so well answered by Dr. Farr, that it is unnecessary to add anything here, but we are certainly surprised to find Mr. Galton objecting to the British Association including in its programme a department of science in which so much good scientific work has been done in past times, and where there is hope yet of still greater results from the prosecution of inquiries in a scientific spirit. " (a). Considerations adverse to the Maintenance of Section F (Economic Science and Statistics), submitted by Mr. Francis Gallon to the Committee appointed by the Council to consider and report on the possibility of excluding unscientific or otherwise unsuitable papers and discussions from the sectional proceedings of the Association. " The following considerations are submitted by the writer to serve as a basis of discussion and to elicit arguments on the other side. The subject has many aspects and touches many interests, and has not as yet been sufficiently ventilated to justify a final judgment upon it. On these grounds, although his remarks will be found to be adverse to the continuance of the Section, the author reserves full freedom as to his own final opinion. " The chief reasons which appear to have prompted the establishment of the Section of Economic Science and Statistics, and which may still be alleged in favour of its maintenance, may be briefly stated as follows:-